Magia Record Story From Beyond, To You ~ The Twilight in Kamihama Daito Apartment
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Part 1
Summary by bigscarythings
The Daito apartment complex has fallen into disrepair, the consequence of its shoddy construction. What's more, the residents are growing old, and hardly any new people are moving in, and so it's getting bulldozed for a redevelopment project that would evict all the residents. The residents, understandably, oppose the project. When the project is put on hold when it ends up excavating ancient pottery, the opposition movement rallies its forces.
Mito and Leila are gung ho about the opposition movement, and actively volunteer for the cause. Seika, however, privately thinks it's all a fool's errand. The problems with the complex and its future are real and unavoidable. Still, she assists with the movement to help her friends.
The head of the opposition movement asks the girls to help with a separate project. An old resident, who lived alone and kept to himself, has recently passed away while sitting on a bench outside. The police said there was no foul play; he died of natural causes. In his will, he bequeathed everything to the opposition head, who's the kind of guy who knows everyone in the complex, and was basically the only person the old man ever talked to - but even then interaction was minimal.
The opposition head had no idea this was the old man's plan, and doesn't like being burdened with this, but there's nothing he can do about it now. Still, the task of sorting through his apartment and belongings is an ordeal and a half, and the opposition head can't manage that and the opposition movement at the same time. So the Clover Trio accept the job of cleaning out his apartment.
While doing cleanup, they learn the man was divorced; it's unknown if he had any children. Then the Clover Trio find an old diary - and it's exuding magic! (The magic prevents muggles from being able to read it by making the text look blurry; the Clover Trio can read it perfectly, however) The diary relates the life of a girl from decades ago named Atsuko, who contracted with her two best friends, Kazuyo and Tamie, and they swore to fight Witches and protect their home together. Mito and Leila dive into this mystery, wanting to know about the girls and their lives, and if Atsuko might've been the old man's long-lost (and perhaps long-forgotten) daughter. Seika, on the other hand, is reluctant to go on this quest, thinking it's a major breach of privacy and family secrets, but Leila really wants to learn more about the magical girls who came before them, who struggled just as they did. Seika ultimately decides to go along with it, trying to tampen down her negativity.
To investigate these girls, the Clover Trio follow the diary to different locations, where Atsuko used her magic to seal memories within objects. Following the proverbial scavenger hunt, the Clover Trio trace the lives of their predecessors as it falls to tragedy, when the girls find a very powerful Witch that they fear they cannot overcome. The trio of yore decide that if they can't win, they can at least seal away the Witch with their magic, and Atsuko can leave memories to help warn other Magical Girls, who may be able to defeat the Witch they could not.
When the diary leads dry up, the girls look into yearbooks and graduations from years past, eventually finding the trio, which gives them a strong indicator that Atsuko was the daughter of the deceased old man.
Meanwhile, as this investigation has been going on, tensions have been rising between Seika and Leila as Seika keeps slipping out her cynicism and doubt towards this whole cause, as circumstances make her wonder if these magical girls and the enemy Witch are even real or not. Eventually, it blows up as a spat over the mystery spills over into Leila doubting Seika's commitment to the opposition movement. Seika admits that yes, she thinks the opposition movement is pointless - they can't expect things to remain the same forever! Leila accuses Seika of not caring about losing their home at all, but Seika tries to say they need to find another road - but this is Leila's home, and she doesn't like how cynical and pragmatic Seika is behaving. Mito manages to get them to break it up, and the girls all go their separate ways.
In the end, while Mito reels over their fight - noting that Seika and Leila have always butted heads since they were kids, but never to this extent - Kanagi comes across her and lends an ear. After explaining everything, Mito says she should use her magic with them both like last time, but Kanagi warns against it. To her, she thinks this is a matter that Seika and Leila need to resolve themselves, using their own words. She has faith that once Seika and Leila both cool their heads, they'll calm down and see things more clearly.
That said, Kanagi is concerned about this locked-away Witch. She wants to investigate, asking Mito to join her, since Mito can't team up with both Seika and Leila as things currently stand. Not to mention that if they can find the Witch, perhaps that can help push Seika and Leila to kiss and make up. But there's one other thing on Kanagi's mind...
We don't get to see it yet, as we cut over to Seika. Sure enough, she's beating herself up for what she said, realizing she should have talked about things much sooner rather than letting tensions simmer and blow up. She knows she needs to apologize... But she pauses when one of the articles she's skimming through catches her eye - a report on the missing trio of girls, Kazuyo, Tamie, and Atsuko, confirming that they've indeed been real all along...and that means the mighty and deadly Witch is still out there too. And if Leila or Mito are still trying to find that Witch - they better not go fight her alone!
Part 2
Summary by nitrokart
Part 2 of the event picks up immediately after the end of Part 1, with Seika still in the library. She receives a call from Mito, who mentions that she's with Kanagi and asks to meet up. Seika accepts and takes the opportunity to apologize to Mito, who's grateful to hear that Seika wants to make amends. Kanagi redirects the girls' attention to the investigation, though, and specifically mentions that she has a new theory regarding Atsuko's diary and memories.
After having heard the girls' current theory from Mito -- that being that Atsuko stored memories in different locations and then mentioned those locations in her diary -- Kanagi says she began to wonder: if Atsuko's memories are "locked" to specific locations, how were the girls able to view the "full" version of the first memory from Mitama's shop, far away from Mr. Kiyomi's apartment?
Kanagi presents a new theory: that Atsuko's stored memories aren't tied to the diary, but that they instead could be anywhere in which there was a physical "vessel" to contain them. In the case of the first memory, Atsuko used her own diary as a vessel -- whereas she used the park bench as a vessel for the second, and the handrail on the roof as a vessel for the third.
In light of this, Kanagi believes that there Atsuko may have stored additional memories elsewhere in the Apartment Complex -- even if they weren't mentioned in the diary. To demonstrate this, she and Mito take Seika to the 5th floor stairwell of Building 11 in the Complex, where Kanagi and Mito had already tracked down another one of Atsuko's memories. This one is stored in the stairs themselves, and Kanagi invites Seika to view the memory herself -- it's one that needs to be witnessed rather than retold.
Upon touching the stairs, Seika is presented with a flashback showing a frantic Atsuko and Kazuyo rushing up the stairs of Building 11, seemingly in pursuit of the Witch. As they discuss how they've fallen behind Tamie and need to catch up to her, a mysterious girl appears and begins taunting them. Although she never states her name, it's clear that this fourth girl is a Magical Girl as well -- and she soon picks a fight with Kazuyo.
Although Atsuko wants to stay behind and help Kazuyo in her fight, Kazuyo implores her to do the opposite: catching up to Tamie has to be their main priority. Kazuyo tells Atsuko to continue forward, and that she'll catch up to her after she deals with the new Magical Girl. As a reluctant Atsuko leaves, Kazuyo asks her to store the memory of the event somewhere. Atsuko agrees, and then tells Kazuyo that she'll "meet her at the fish."
Seika, rattled by the intensity of the confrontation, then shares her findings from the library with Kanagi and Mito. The two of them are unsettled by the notion that Atsuko and her friends disappeared not long after dealing with this particular Witch, and Seika says that they need to search the Complex for more of Atsuko's memories. Kanagi says, however, that she'd searched the Complex from top to bottom before meeting up with Seika -- and that the stairwell memory was the only new one she'd found.
We then cut to a scene of a remorseful Leila alone on the rooftop where she and Seika fought the night prior. Now embarrassed and saddened by what she said, she resolves to call Seika and apologize -- only to realize that she left her phone in her room. As she leaves to go get it, she pauses: it occurs to her that the rooftop she's on is the one where she and the other girls had found the memory stored in the handrail. Figuring that she ought to at least make her trip to the rooftop somewhat worthwhile, Leila decides to take another look at the handrail memory.
While the memory itself is as brief as ever, Leila realizes that the "place" Atsuko mentioned would more than likely be visible from the rooftop where the memory was stored -- and only one major location is within eyeshot from that particular roof: Lake Tono.
We cut back to Mito, Seika, and Kanagi in Building 11, with Seika attempting to call Leila -- with no luck. Not realizing that Leila simply left her phone at home, the girls begin to get uneasy. Kanagi asks if Mito can use her heart-connecting magic to tune into what Leila might be doing (since their hearts would still be connected from the first Daito Trio event), and Mito gives it a whirl. She's able to make an initial connection, but finds that Leila's heart is filled with grief and unnatural darkness. While she can faintly make out Leila's location, which seems to be some kind of lake, Mito soon goes quiet: for reasons unknown, she lost the connection to Leila.
As Seika and Mito begin to panic, Kanagi takes control of the conversation. She deduces that Leila didn't have access to any form of transportation, she couldn't have gone too far -- and that since there's only one lake in Daito Ward (that being Lake Tono), she must be there.
In a really neat scene, Kanagi says that the fastest way to get to Lake Tono is to use Seika's water-to-water teleportation magic. Seika confirms that this should be possible as long as they can find some water in Building 11, to which Mito offers up her personal canteen. Seika has her pour it on the ground, and then tells Mito and Kanagi to grab hold of her. She steps into the puddle Mito's canteen made, and... it works!
As soon as they arrive at Lake Tono, the girls see Leila -- given that she's transformed and covered in her own purification flames, she's not hard to find. They notice, however, that she doesn't look like herself -- and that she seems to be getting ready to shoot her flames at the surface of the lake.
We cut to Leila's perspective, and find that she's possessed by some unnatural force. This force, speaking directly into her mind, had commanded her to transform, conjure up her flames, and fire them at the lake in order to "break the seal," allowing some sort of darkness to spread over Daito Ward.
Before the girls can stop her, Leila throws her flames at the surface of the lake, which then begins to rumble... and although it's unclear if the presence was visible, the girls can certainly feel it: whatever Leila's flames managed to free from the lake is absolutely massive, and it the same magical signature as a Witch.
There's no time to focus on that, though: after throwing her flames at the lake, Leila collapsed into a heap. The girls rush over to her, and find that she's slowly waking up, unaware of what she did while "possessed." After she comes to, however, Leila is able to recall some of what happened:
After realizing that the Atsuko's handrail memory was likely referring to Lake Tono, Leila began making her way over there. When she arrived, she picked up an inkling of Atsuko's magical signature, and traced it to a bronze fish statue in a forest beside the lake. Upon touching it to see if it contained a memory, however, Leila instead felt her body fall into the arms of some unknown force -- the one that compelled her to transform and "break the cage" of the lake.
Leila asks why Atsuko would've left a trap like that, but Kanagi says what Leila went through doesn't seem to be Atsuko's doing -- it doesn't match up with what they've seen of her character throughout the flashbacks. Rather, Kanagi realizes that the fish statue Leila touched was more than likely the "fish" that Atsuko said she'd meet Kazuyo at during the latter half of the stairwell memory. Realizing that the unknown Magical Girl that attacked Kazuyo would've been in earshot when Atsuko mentioned the fish, Kanagi deduces that the "memory" stored in the fish statue was an elaborate trap left by this unknown girl.
Upon entering the Labyrinth, however, the group notices a startling discrepancy: this Labyrinth -- and even the Witch itself, which they can see in the distance -- is identical to the one they encountered in See You Tomorrow. Kanagi rationalizes that the Witch from Lake Tono must have used the magical remnants of that Witch's Labyrinth as a "blueprint" for its own Labyrinth, which would dramatically speed up the process of building the Labyrinth itself -- at the cost of changing the Witch's own form.
Leila, however, sees this as a major win: after all, she and her friends handled this Witch by themselves once before, so doing it again should be no problem! She spends a moment pumping Seika and Mito up before the three of them charge into battle -- and a few moments later...
The Labyrinth collapses around them, and the darkness surrounding the Complex fades: the Witch from Lake Tono has been defeated once and for all!
As the girls rightfully begin to celebrate, their moods soon turn bittersweet: despite all the excitement of defeating the Witch, they're still no closer to figuring out what happened to Atsuko, her friends, or the Saboteur. And unfortunately, it seems the trail soon runs cold. We're told that over the next few days, the girls aren't able to make any further progress in Atsuko's case -- until they receive some major news regarding the redevelopment plans.
While talking with Otake, the girls are informed of an incredible break in the protests: the redevelopment plans have been cancelled entirely! The Daito Apartment Complex will live on!
Stunned but elated by the development, the girls ask how such a thing could've happened. Otake explains that just a few days prior, Daito Ward's City Hall had been approached by a real estate firm that was willing to pay a king's ransom for the rights to the Daito Apartment Complex -- to the point that they priced the original redevelopment company out of the picture and took over the project themselves. Instead of leveling the Complex, though, the new company wants to begin a massive renovation!
For all the elderly residents that are leaving the Complex, the real estate company sees potential vacancies that can be filled by new families from both within and outside Daito. In an effort to attract these families to the Complex, Otake explains that the real estate firm will be renovating everything from the ground-up, starting with the apartments themselves and then moving on to the shopping centers, parks, and recreation areas.
Simply put, it's nothing short of a miracle -- and one that almost seems too good to be true. Confused by how things turned on their head so quickly, Seika asks Otake about the name of the real estate firm taking over the project is. His answers shakes Mito, Leila, and Seika to the core:
Waki Real Estate.
The girls immediately recognize "Waki" as being Tamie's last name, and start to panic. They ask a very confused Otake if there are any nearby representatives from the company, only for the ultimate representative -- Mr. Waki himself, the company's CEO -- to walk in at that exact moment.
Mr. Waki introduces himself to Otake and explains that he's on-site for a conference scheduled to occur later that day. He freezes up when he sees Mito, Leila, and Seika, though -- and when Otake asks what's wrong, Mr. Waki explains that he used to have a daughter that was around the girls' age. This daughter, however, had gone missing without a trace several years ago, and had never been found.
Mr. Waki goes on to explain that it was the death of Mr. Kiyomi -- the old man who passed away at the very beginning of the event -- that had redirected his attention to the Complex in the first place. Both Mr. Waki and Mr. Kiyomi had been residents in the Complex, and both of their daughters -- Tamie and Atsuko -- had gone missing at the same time. The lives of both men fell apart at the seams in light of the disappearances; they both ended up divorcing their wives and entertaining the thought of moving far away, but only Mr. Waki followed through with it. Mr. Kiyomi, he learned, had spent the rest of his life alone at the Complex, waiting on his daughter to come home. He had died while waiting on her to come back to the only place she would know to go.
Mr. Waki says that after he moved out of the Complex, he drowned out his grief by devoting himself entirely to his career, eventually turning Waki Real Estate into a massive operation -- one with enough money and resources to renovate the entirety of the Daito Apartment Complex. Mr. Waki explains that the idea had come to him as soon as he heard of Mr. Kiyomi's passing -- that he simply couldn't allow the Complex to be demolished, lest his daughter finally return to it someday.
Mr. Waki says that he knows there's functionally no chance of Tamie returning, though. In all the years since she'd disappeared, he'd never been able to find so much as a clue as to what might've happened to her. The only thing he ever found or received in that regard was a mysterious photograph, which he found in his mailbox a few days after Tamie went missing. The photo itself provided no real information, though -- it was simply a picture of one of the parks in the Complex, with the word "FORWARD" written on the back.
Mr. Waki happens to have the photo on-hand, and takes it out so that he can show it to Otake and the girls. The girls, however seize up when they see the photo -- not because of its contents, but because it's marked with Atsuko's magical signature! When they reach out to touch it, they're treated to one last stored memory from Atsuko:
This memory takes place in the aftermath of Atsuko and Tamie's battle with the Saboteur. Atsuko explains that while she and Tamie were successful in their efforts to seal the Witch away in Lake Tono, doing so used almost all of Tamie's magical energy. She was so weak by the end of the process that when the Saboteur swooped in and used her magic to copy Tamie's sealing powers, there was nothing anyone could do to stop her.
Tamie's fate is left unclear, as is the Saboteur's. Atsuko explains that she was able to escape Lake Tono and fled to the Complex, though she has no intention of staying. Given that the Saboteur killed her two best friends, Atsuko has no intentions of letting her live free: she vows to avenge Kazuyo and Tamie's deaths at all costs and kill the Saboteur herself.
Although she isn't sure where to begin her search, Atsuko takes solace in having figured out the Saboteur's weakness: while there seems to be no limit to the number of magical abilities she can copy, she can only use them for a limited, unknown amount of time. Atsuko decides that the best time to attack the Saboteur would be a time in which the usability window has expired on almost all of her abilities, thus greatly limiting her abilities in combat.
Before departing, Atsuko tells whoever comes into possession of this photograph that she always loved her mother, her father, and the Daito Apartments as a whole -- and she begs that the Magical Girls of the future protect the Complex at all costs.
Now in tears, Mito, Leila, and Seika begin to profusely thank Mr. Waki for saving the Complex. They assure him that none of the Complex's residents -- past, present, or future -- will ever forget his generosity, and that thanks to his efforts, the Complex will live on.
In a closing narration, Seika tells us that even when it seems like people are gone, we can always find the "vessels" that they've left behind. Other people discover those vessels and share them with others, sometimes recording it in history and other times using it to create something new. No matter the case, though, at the end of this sequence, we'll always find that we've moved in the same direction:
Forward.
Before the event ends, though, we cut to Mitama's shop, where Kanagi has just finished catching Mitama up on all that transpired at the Complex. Mitama, concerned by the unknown identity of the Saboteur, says that every generation of Magical Girls seems to have its toublemakers, to which Kanagi replies that the two of them should know that better than anyone.
Kanagi then changes the subject to what appears to have been the original cause of their meeting: Mitama's desire to discuss the Magia Record as a whole. The Record's stability -- or lack thereof -- is becoming a serious and legitimate concern, to the point that Mitama believes it might be spiraling out of control from the inside. Kanagi, confused by Mitama's wording, seems to imply that some sort of concern of theirs -- the details of which are deliberately left unsaid -- has come to fruition. Mitama echoes this sentiment, and asks Kanagi to visit the Magia Record herself, even if just for a short time. In the event's closing line, Mitama asks Kanagi to find it in her heart to go through with the expedition -- for Iroha and Ui's sake.